Portions of inkers for printing machines often must be cleaned or removed from the printing machine, for example to use the inker with ink of a different color, replacement of doctor blades, servicing or the like. Ink must be supplied to the chambered doctor blade unit and, typically, an ink trough and a pump are connected by a hose or by tubing to the chambered doctor blade unit. The referenced U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,475, John et al, assigned to the assignee of the present application and the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a chambered doctor blade unit in which the unit itself is connected via a hose or tube with a pump and ink supply arrangement. The hose is coupled to the pump by a releasable hose coupling or connection union. It has been found that it is time-consuming, and sometimes awkward, to disconnect the hose and/or its coupling to clean the chambered doctor blade unit, for example if change in the color of ink is desired. Frequently, there is only little space in which to work.